Follower plates for filing cabinets



United States Patent FOLLOWER PLATES FOR FILING CABINETS Clarence A. F. Anderson, Muskegon, Mich., assignor to .The Shaw-Walker Company, Muskegon, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Application April 30, 1956, Serial No. 581,515

1 Claim. (Cl. 129-28) This invention relates to improvements in, follower plates of the kind used in filing cabinets, and has for its principal object the provision of an improved and simple device of the character described which is normally held in upright position in the filing compartment, but is capable of rearward tilting adjustment to facilitate reference to filed material by releasing a lever in the rear of the plate.

The device of the present invention is an improvement over the form of follower plate construction broadly disclosed in my prior Patent No. 2,758,602 issued August 14, 1956.

ther objects and advantages of the invention will appear from time to time as the following description proceeds.

The invention may best be understood by reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary vertical section taken longitudinally of a filing cabinet drawer, with a follower plate assembly installed therein, and showing certain parts broken away;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary section taken on line 2-2 of Figure l; and

Figure 3 is an enlarged detail side view showing the locking lever in position to hold the hinged'partition plate in upright position.

Referring now to details of the embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings, a metal drawer for a filing cabinet is indicated generally at 10, including a bottom 11, side walls 12, 12 and rear wall 13, all formed of sheet metal in any suitable manner. The drawer has a pair of laterally extended, generally rectangular grooves 15 extending longitudinally along the bottom of the side walls 12, the bottoms of which grooves being substantially in the same plane as the drawer bottom 11.

A pair of opposed channel bars 20 are detachably mounted in the grooves 15. Said channel bars are formed of sheet metal, generally C-shaped in cross section to fit flatwise in upright position within their respective grooves. Any suitable means (not shown) may be provided for receiving said channel bars in their grooves, with the open sides of said channel 'bars facing inwardly toward each other.

Each channel bar 20 consists of an upright web 21, and upper and lower flanged webs 22 and 23, respectively, at right angles thereto. The upper web 22 extends continuously for the full length of the bar. The lower web 23 also extends the length of the bar, but is provided with a plurality of teeth 25 turned upwardly along its outer end in spaced relation to the upright web 21. The teeth are formed with upright faces 26 toward the front end of the drawer and rearwardly inclined faces 27 toward the rear end of the drawer. The teeth 25 may be omitted as unnecessary near the extreme front end of the drawer.

Referring now to the follower plate assembly utilized with the channel bars 20, said assembly indicated generally at 30 includes a crossbar 40 bent at its opposite ends to form a pair of parallel feet 42, 42 extending perpendicularly from said crossbar, a flat body plate 44 having a strip 41 fixed along its bottom edge with a series of eyes 45 pivoted on a pivot pin 46 which also passes through a series of concentric eyes 47 on a plate 48 fixed along the upper rear face of the crossbar 40. In the form shown herein, the strip 41 is suitably fixed as by welding to the front face of the body plate 44, and its eyes 45 curve rearwardly around the pivot pin 46.

Each foot 42 has a hump on its extreme front end. As will be noted in Figure 1, tilting movement of the feet 42 due to pressure of the drawer contents in front of the body plate 44, will be resisted by engagement of the humps 49 with the upper web 22, while the feet are fulcrumed about their heels on the bottom web 23 closely adjacent the drawer bottom. The ends of crossbar 40 will therefore tend to be retained in locking engagement between an opposed pair of teeth 25 to retain the partition member 30 as a whole in desired position of adjustment along the drawer bottom.

The hinged plate 44 is normally locked in substantially upright position as shown in full lines in Figure 1. A supporting bracket 50 is fixed to the rear face of the crossbar 40, and centrally thereof, said bracket having a pair of rearwardly projecting upright cars 51, 51 forming supports for the opposite ends of a horizontal pivot pin 52. A support lever 53 is pivotally mounted at its lower end on the pivot pin. In the form shown said support lever has a pair of side flanges 54, 54 adjacent its lower end through which the pivot pin 52 extends. The flanges 54 of said support lever normally extend upward at a forwardly inclined angle to the rear face of the body plate 44, said flanges gradually decreasing in width as the lever approaches said plate. An upper flattened end portion 55 of the lever 53 is bent at a slight angle to the flanged lower portion and is slideably engaged beneath a transverse guide strip 56 fixed at opposite ends to the rear face of the body plate 44 adjacent its upper end, to hold the upper end of said lever in vertical slideable relation with said follower plate. The end portion 55 has downwardly facing shoulders 55a forming stops engaging the guide strip 56 to limit forward pivotal movement of the body plate to the substantially vertical position shown in Figure 1.

The guide strip 56 also has a pair of rearwardly extending ears 57, 57 extending therefrom to support the ends of a pivot pin 58 on which an upright locking lever 59 is pivoted, centrally of the guide strip. The lower end of the locking lever 59 is adapted to have interfitting, locking engagement with the support lever 53 when the follower plate is in its normal vertical position, but is releasable from such locking position by manually depressing the upper end of said locking lever. In the form shown herein, the locking lever 59 is pressed by a spring 60 coiled around the pivot pin 58, with one end 61 engaging the inner face of said lever adjacent its upper end, and the other end 62 of said spring engaging the adjacent face of the guide strip 56, tending to urge the lower end of said locking lever into locking position.

The means affording interlocking engagement of the locking lever 59 and the support lever 53 herein consists of a pair of side flanges 64, 64 on the locking lever, adapted to project into a pair of apertures 65, 65 formed on the support lever 53 so that the bottom ends of said flanges engage the lower edges of said apertures when the body plate 44 is in its normal upright position, as shown in Figures 1 and 3. The arrangement is such, that by depressing the upper end of the locking lever, the lower ends of the flanges 64 may be withdrawn from the apertures 65, to release the follower plate 44 for rearward swinging movement, as indicated in dotted lines in Figure 1.

3 The rearward tilting of the body plate 44 is limited at a predetermined angle by stop means, herein consisting of the extreme upper end of the flattened end portion 55 of the support lever 53, which is adapted to abut against a rearwardly extending flange 44a along the top of said follower plate when the body plate reaches its desired limit of rearward inclination as indicated in dotted lines 7 in Figure 1.

The friction imposed by the compression of the spring 60 will serve to hold the locking lever in unlocked position, but the body plate 44 may readily be returned to upright locked position by exerting relatively light forward pressure on its upper edge.

When it is desired to change the position of the body plate as a whole longitudinally of the cabinet drawer, the crossbar 40 can be released by lifting the body plate 44 upwardly so as to tilt the crossbar 40 upwardly with its feet 42 fulcrumed at their outer ends on the lower webs 23 and with the humps 49 in engagement with the upper webs 22, so as to raise the crossbar 40 a suflicient distance to clear the tops of the teeth 25.

From the above description, it will be seen that the general structure and operation of the follower plate is very similar to that broadly disclosed in my prior Patent No. 2,758,602 previously referred to, excepting for the hinged tilting arrangement of the body plate 44 and the locking means for selectively holding said plate in upright position, or releasing said plate for rearward tilting movement to a predetermined angle.

Although I have shown and described a certain embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claim.

I claim:

A follower plate assembly for filing drawers and the like comprising a lower cross bar, a flat follower plate hinged thereto adjacent the front edge thereof adapted to extend vertically upwardly therefrom when in the file closing position, a support lever pivoted on the cross bar adjacent the rear thereof and extending diagonally upwardly and forwardly toward the follower plate, the

support lever being flanged throughout a portion of its length and terminating in a plane parallel with but spaced rearwardly from the follower plate, the support lever having a relatively thin flat end portion projecting beyond the termination of the flange inclined to the lever and parallel with the follower plate, a guide strip mounted on the back of the follower plate overlying, enclosing and in slidable relationship with the extension, the uppermost portion of the extension being wider in a plane parallel with the follower plate than is that portion of theextension enclosed by the guide strip whereby when the follower plate is in the upright position, the shoulders bounding the lower end of the widened portion of the extension rest upon the upper edge of the guide strip to lock the follower plate against further movement in a forward direction, the support lever being apertured below the extension, a detent lever pivotally supported on the follower plate and yielding means biasing the downward end of the detent lever into penetrating relationship with the aperture whereby the follower plate is locked against rearward rotation, the distance between the end of the flange and the back of the follower plate being such that upon release of the detent rearward angular excursion of the follower plate will cause rotation of the support lever until the end of the flange contacts the rear of the follower plate to lock it against further rearward movement, when the support lever has reached the vertical position, the means normally biasing the detent lever into locking relationship with the aperture being adapted to hold the detent against the smooth rear portion of the support lever and frictionally hold it in intermediate position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 425,825 Ohrner Apr. 15, 1890 2,623,528 Uhrmacher et al Dec. 30, 1952 2,758,602 Anderson Aug. 14, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 282,344 Italy Feb. 9, 1931 

